July 15, 2007

Easy Blender Quiche


Here in Sweetheartville we're all about good food that's easy. Now don't get me wrong, I love a day spent in the kitchen baking cookies, breads, cakes or making candy, but when it comes to everyday meals, especially lazy Sunday late breakfasts, I much prefer the simple, (no chi-chi-poo-poo gourmet ingredients or an instruction list a mile long) one dish/skillet/pan variety. I ran across a 1950s recipe for easy quiche, so this morning I took it, made a lot of changes and ran. Boy howdy, was it ever delicious. The Bisquick makes the lightest, most delicate golden crust on top. Even the anti-quiche Mr. Sweetheart gave it his seal of approval by going back for seconds.

Easy Blender Quiche



3 eggs

1/3 cup melted butter or oleo

1/2 cup Bisquick (I use Jiffy Mix.)

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 tsp. salt

pepper

1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but swiss would be delicious.)

3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

3/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 to 1/2 lb. sausage (I prefer turkey sausage.)



Cook and crumble sausage in a skillet. When it is nearly browned, add bell pepper and onion and cook until they are softened. In a blender or food processor, combine the other ingredients and blend. Pour the mixture into a greased pie plate or 9 x 9" square casserole dish, then add the sausage, peppers and onions, distributing them evenly throughout the pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool a few minutes before cutting.

Feel free to use any veggies you like or those you have on hand. Some fresh spinach or even corn would be quite tasty. Also, you could easily substitute ham or bacon for the sausage, or leave the meat out altogether. The inspiration recipe called for a half cup of butter, but I decreased it to only 1/3 cup to save some calories, and honestly, probably could have gotten away with even less, especially with the fat added by the sausage.


While you've got the blender out, here's a great way to use up a batch of fruit before it goes bad: blend up a mess of bananas, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cantaloupe-anything that will blend, really- pour the puree into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and freeze. When frozen, transfer the cubes to freezer storage bags and mark with the name of the fruit and the date it was frozen. You can either make cubes of just one fruit or a blend of two or more, adding fruit juice to thin, if necessary. I recently "put up" a big ol' bunch of brown bananas I got for 35 cents this way, along with some strawberries, and even a large jar of applesauce that we couldn't possibly use up before it spoiled. Now I can just pop a few cubes in a dish, zap them in the microwave, and Sugar Pea has fresh, healthful homemade baby food. By mixing and matching various fruit cubes, you can custom blend flavors like strawberry banana apple, or peach and blueberry added to some rice cereal. Even if you don't have babies, these cubes are great for tossing into the blender with a little juice and/or yogurt to make a quick, frosty smoothie. This would also be a great way to save bananas for later use in banana nut bread. Speaking of bananas, the Bananas in the Modern Manor cook booklet from 1930 was one of many vintage cooking and sewing books I got at a great church rummage sale this weekend for next to nothing. It was pure heaven. I'll share more of my finds with you later, Dollfaces.

3 comments:

fancy said...

OOooo, I love quiche, I'll have to try this.

jungle dream pagoda said...

...and I was thinking cocktails were going to be the recipients of the fruit icecubes,talk about the opposite end of the spectrum!

Angelina said...

Wow, I've missed out on a lot of cool posts!